William Safire quoting Sen. McCain: "Under President Putin, Russia has refused to comply with the terms of the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe [requiring pulling Russian troops out of fmr. eastern bloc countries]. Russian troops occupy parts of Georgia and Moldova . . . Russian agents are working to bring Ukraine further into Moscow's orbit. Russian support sustains Europe's last dictatorship in Belarus. And Moscow has . . . enforced its stranglehold on energy supplies into Latvia in order to squeeze the democratic government in Riga."

The new Russia is grappling with a foreign policy based on neo-imperialism; an internal political climate that fosters supression of dissent (or at least some pretty shady events related to Putin's political opponents); and its inability to combat asymmetrical warfare in the form of terrorist attacks largely related to a military occupation.

So are we becoming more like Russia, or are they becoming more like us?